Yoy are recommended to read the help for 'Misc' before reading this file.

This window is used to configure the options for Black Hole. Using this
window you can select you own permanent defaults for all the options. The
options determine settings for the features such as the iconbar clock and
the iconbar sprites, and also the behaviour of Black Hole when a file is
dragged to the iconbar icon.

This window is divided into two sections. The options are contained within
the scrollable section of the window. The outside portion of the window
contains two buttons - click OK to close the window, or Save to store the
current settings as permanent defaults. You can also drag the resize box to
alter the height of the window.

[234]
The scrollable panel is divided into four sections. These are:

 Default Wipe Options:
 ---------------------
  These options control the way Black Hole deletes files dragged to its icon.
[34]
  Black Hole uses the standard RISC OS 3 Filer Action window so that a Black
  Hole wipe operation will appear the same as any other desktop delete
  operation.

[234]
  Confirm: 
   Prompts for confirmation of all deletions.

  Force:
   Forces deletion of locked objects.

  Verbose:
   Displays information on each object deleted.
               
  Retain Structure:
   If this icon is selected, then only directory contents will be deleted.
   All directories will remain intact, even if empty.
 
 Copy Options:
 -------------
   These icons control the wastebin aspect of Black Hole.
 
  Retain Copies:
   Turning this off disables the wastebin aspect of Black Hole - ie it will
   not copy any files to its Bin Directory, it will just delete them.
   
   Note that files already in the Bin will be overwritten if files with the
   same names are added later.
   
   Dragging a file or selection of files to the Black Hole while holding down
   Ctrl will turn this option off for those files.
   
  Delete Copies After:
   If you turn this off, Black Hole will never delete the files from its
   Bin Directory. They will remain there for ever. One major drawback to
   this is that your bin directory will eventually fill up. This is not good,
   it makes life difficult and generally a bit of a downer. So, turn this
   icon on and type into the small writeable icon the number of days you
   want files to be retained for.

  Squash on Shutdown:
   Retained copies can take up a lot of disc space, and it is helpful if you
   can compress them. This option allows Black Hole to do this for you. When 
   this option is selected and you do a 'Shutdown' of the desktop (i.e. 
   Ctrl-Shift-F12), Black Hole will go through today's bin and Squash all its
   contents before allowing the desktop to shut down. It will only do this if
   something has been added to the bin. Cute, innit? This option also applie 
   if you select 'Quit' from Black Hole's iconbar menu.
[2]
   If this option is not selectable, you don't have the 'Squash' program on
   your hard disc. See some more advanced help.
[34]   
   For this to function properly, one (or more) of three things must be true:
   Either the file 'Squash' from inside the !Squash application must be
   present in the current library, or the !Squash application must have been 
   'seen' by the filer before BlackHole is run.
   The third way to do it is to copy the file 'Squash' from inside !Squash
   into the directory !System.Modules. Provided !System is booted before
   Black Hole is started, this should always work and has the advantage that
   you don't need a Library directory if you don't want one.
   
[234]
  Bin Location
   The Bin Directory is, by default, the directory
    !BlakHole2.BlackHole
   but this can be changed if desired. To do this, enter the pathname of the
   directory you wish to use into this box. Pressing RETURN immediately or
   clicking on the OK icon will make your new directory the Bin Directory.
   Dragging a directory to the options window will insert the pathname of
   that directory as the new Bin Directory and make the change current.
   Leaving the box empty will cause the default to be restored.
   Clicking select on the iconbar icon opens the current Bin Directory.
   The 'Empty' or 'Occupied' message below the iconbar icon applies to this
   directory, as does the 'Delete Copies After' option, if the new bin
   location is saved permanently.

 Misc:
 -----
  Spin:
   When the pointer is over a BlackHole window or its iconbar icon, the icon
   will spin round. Unless the option is not selected, when it won't.

 Clock:
   Turning this on will cause a small digital clock to appear on the iconbar
   next to the pallette icon. This is here for gratuitous showing off reasons
   only and it is accurate only to  1 minute or thereabouts. You can also
   select whether to have a 12 or 24 hour clock.

  Sprites:
   The iconbar sprites used for the animation of the Black Hole can be
   changed very easily. (Black Hole is supplied with four sets of sprites.)
   Clicking the left button over the arrow next to this option opens a menu
   containing the names of the current sprite files. Select one to change
   the sprites.
[34]
   To define your own sprites, you need a sprite file containing nine frames
   of animation named !black0 through !black8 inclusive. Mode 12 sprites
   should be 34 x 17 pixels. Mode 20 sprites should be 34 x 34. Save the
   sprite file into the directory !BlakHole2.Sprites and it will appear on
   the Sprites menu. You can open this directory by clicking on the 'Open
   Dir' icon.
   The standard RISC OS 3 *IconSprites convention is used for these files;
   i.e. the same animation can have low res. (Mode 12), high res. (Mode 20)
   and high res. monochrome sprites defined. The Mode 12 sprites should be
   saved as whatever you want to call them, the mode 20 ones should have the
   same name with a 22 appended. Black Hole will ignore any files ending in
   22 or 23 on its sprite menu, but RISC OS 3 will automatically select the
   correct one for the current mode. The default sprites (BlakHole) are
   defined this way. If you select the 'Update on mode change' option, then
   Black Hole will automatically update its sprites to suit the new
   resolution when you change to a new screen mode, subject to a suitable
   sprite file being available.

  Menu Font:
   Selecting this causes Black Hole to use an outline font for the text in
   its menus. In my opinion, these look far nicer than the normal system font
   and as they're built in to RISC OS 3, why shouldn't they be used?
   The fonts definitely look best in a hi-res mode so this icon is provided
   to allow you to turn them off if you don't like them.
   Remember that if you do use fonts, you will need a small font cache - 32K
   is more than adequate.

  Clock Font:
   Similar to the above but controls the use of fonts in the iconbar clock.
   
 Singularity:
 ------------
 
  Singularity is the tiny Black Hole. It does some interesting things.
[2]
  This is where it gets complicated. Singularity will intercept all those
  occasions on which you delete a file by selecting the 'Delete' option
  from a filer menu. If you want to know more, select the 'Singularity' help
  from the Master Help System, or read this text using a more technical help
  level.
  
  If you want to ignore Singularity, make sure the options
  'Trap Filer Deletes'
  'Report'
  'Show Sprite'
  are OFF.
[4]  
  For Black Hole, the Singularity aspect is controlled by the module
  'BlackHole'

[34] 
  Trap Filer Deletes:
   With this option on, Black Hole will intercept all occasions on which you
   select 'Delete' from a Filer menu (i.e. when you delete a file in the
   normal way). The file will be copied to the Bin directory before being
   deleted.
   There are a few points to note about this:
     1) The wipe options for this are taken from the filer, not Black Hole's
     internal Config window.
     2) Due to the way it works, all directory structure is lost.
     3) Deleting today's bin directory from the Filer menu with this option
     On will simply cause the directory to be copied inside itself. UNLESS
     your Bin directory is inside Wimp$ScrapDir.
     4) To prevent complications, this option is temporarily turned OFF
     during any Black Hole operation involving deletions. If I did not do
     this, every file would be copied twice.
     5) This bit will also intercept any delete operations carried out from
     the command line.
     
   Show Sprite:
    With this ON, a sprite will be placed on the iconbar next to the Black
    Hole icon. This sprite will have the word On or Off under it to indicate
    the current state of the above option. Clicking SELECT on this icon will
    toggle the state of the option. Clicking MENU will open a menu with a
    'Remove' option which removes the sprite from the iconbar. This
    does not turn Singularity off.
     
   Remove at Exit:
    With this ON, the BlackHole module will be killed when you quit Black
    Hole. I recommend that you do this.
    
   Report:
    With this option ON, every time a file is captured by this method a small
    window will open to inform you which file has been caught. The window
    will close after a short time, or you can close it by clicking on its OK
    button.
    
   Ignore ADFS floppy discs:
    Trapping deletions from floppy discs can be a slow process and it is
    very rare that you would want to do this. Turn this option on to stop
    Singularity applying to ADFS floppy discs (most floppy discs are ADFS).
    
   File Systems to Ignore:
    Using this you can set up a list of up to 12 filing systems that are
    immune from being trapped by Singularity.
    
    To add a filing system to the list, click on Add... This opens a menu
    of all the currently resident filing systems (eg ADFS, RAM if you have
    a RAM disc.) Select one and it will be added to the list. The last entry
    in the menu is a writeable icon into which you can type the name of any
    other filing system
    
[3]
    The name of the filing system is what appears at the very left of a
    directory heading -  eg for the directory ADFS::IDEDisc4.$ the filing
    system is ADFS.
    
[234]
Singularity Compatibility Issues:
=====================

Singularity has been tested with as many filing systems as possible. Two
problems are known about:

1) Singularity cannot differentiate between an Image filing system and it's
   parent. E.g. a PC emulator DOS partition looks to Singularity like an ADFS
   disc, even though it's under the control of DOSFS.
   
2) If you use SparkFS to create archives in the 'Spark Dir' format and
   delete any files from there, Singularity will copy them over in
   COMPRESSED form. This is due to the way this type of Archive is controlled
   by SparkFS. The same may be true of certain versions of ArcFS, but I
   haven't tried it 'cos my version's read only.
   
   With normal archives (and with CFS) the files are decompressed on the fly.

[234]    
 Auto Saver Options:
 -------------------
 These two options refer to the Auto Saver part of Black Hole which is
 described more fully in the appropriate help.

 Confirm before Saving:
  This will ask whether you are sure before saving anything. It will also
  tell you if the file already exists.

 Open Destination when Saved:
  This will open the destination directory when a file is saved into it using
  the Auto Saver.
  
 Blackout:
 ---------
 This controls the Blackout screen saver which is now distributed as part of
 Black Hole II. For more information, choose the 'Blackout' option from
 the help window.
 
 Blackout is unlike any other screen saver in that I wrote it.
 
 It also doesn't need any extra memory, until you run it. This saves you from
 having to run a screen saver program which takes up extra memory. You can
 also write your own screen savers for it. This is described in the Blackout
 help when you select the highest technical level.
 
[4]
The BlackHole module.
=====================

As mentioned above, the Filer 'Delete' trapping is controlled by a module
called BlackHole. Here, for the interested, are details.

BlackHole provides the following commands.
  *BinOn, *BinOff  -  The functions of which should be obvious.
  *BinStatus       -  Which tells you whether the Bin is currently on or off.
  *BinToggle       -  Toggles the On/Off status of the bin.
  *BinIgnore       -  Takes one parameter, which is the NAME of a filing
                      system to be ignored.
  *BinIgnoreClear  -  Clears the list of filing systems to ignore
  *BinIgnoreADFSFloppies
  *BinCatchADFSFloppies  - both of which are self-explanatory.
  
You also need to ensure that the System Variable BlackHole$BinDir is set to
point to the root bin directory for TODAY. Black Hole does this automatically

If you use *BinIgnore you MUST check that the list of filing system names
is no more than 128 bytes long (one byte for each character in the name, plus
one more). Black Hole does this, and if you don't you could cause horrible
things to happen.

Points to note:
BlackHole does a *BinOFF before every delete operation it does, then does
*BinON if necessary when it has finished. This is the only way I can think
of to stop it copying all the files twice. I can't let *BinOn do all the
copying because a) Some people won't want to use it, (b) all directory
structure is lost.

*BinOn will ignore all disc operations which take place in Wimp$ScrapDir.
If I didn't do this, all the temporay files placed in Wimp$ScrapDir by
applications would be copied to the bin before being deleted. This is not
particulary useful, and I have seen applications crash because of this.
To this end, you should make sure that if you own any applications which
allow you to define a scrap directory just for them, you should define it
somewhere in Wimp$ScrapDir.

[1]
To make life simple for you, I haven't explained things on a 'This bit does
this' basis, but on a 'How do I do this?' basis.

"How do I tell Black Hole how long to keep files in the Bin?"
-------------------------------------------------------------

To do this, you find the bit in the Configuration window which says
'Delete Copies After:'. You make sure this option is turned ON, then you
enter the number of days to keep the files for in the icon to the right.

"Can I tell Black Hole to NOT keep a copy of a file?"
-----------------------------------------------------

If you drag a file to Black Hole while holding down the Ctrl key, no copy
of that file will be kept by Black Hole.

"Can I move the Bin Directory somewhere else?"
----------------------------------------------

You can indeed. Just create the new directory wherever you want it, and drag
it onto the Configuration window.

"Can I set Black Hole to tell me what it's doing?"
--------------------------------------------------

In the Configuration window is a section called 'Default Wipe Options'.
The 'Verbose' option will make Black Hole tell you what it's doing.
The 'Confirm' option will make Black Hole ask you if it's OK before doing
anything.
The 'Force' option will make Black Hole delete even those files which are
locked against deletion.
Don't worry about 'Retain Structure', just leave it OFF.

"Can I change the animation of the Iconbar sprites?"
----------------------------------------------------

Again, yes. There is a section labelled 'Sprites'. Click on the little menu
icon and you'll get a list of animations.

"Can I get Black Hole to make dinner for me?"
---------------------------------------------

No.

Other bits.
===========

Enough Questions. Here's some more stuff.

You can make Black Hole put a small digital clock on your iconbar by
selecting the option 'Show' under 'Iconbar Clock'.

The bit labelled 'Singularity' I would ignore if I were you. Make sure all
the options except 'Remove at Exit' are OFF and ignore the rest.

The bit labelled 'Auto Saver Options' is for the Auto Saver, so read the
help for that bit.

The bit labelled Blackout controls the Blackout Screen Saver. This will
display pretty patterns on your screen if you leave your computer unattended
for a while. This also has its own, sepatarate help.

That's enough for now. Try the next technical help level if you want to
know more.

